User login

critics of Modi

Over the Labor Day weekend, most signatories of the “Faculty Statement on Narendra Modi’s Visit to Silicon Valley” received threats from individuals in South Africa and Canada and email harassment from the Hindu Vivek Kendra, a Hindu nationalist organization affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member. Several letter signatories have also been targeted by a board member of the Hindu American Foundation, another Hindu nationalist organization.

'Amidst alleged threats to judge Ms Jyotsna Yagnik who had convicted Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and others for their involvement in the Gujarat 2002 riots, a former judge has now come forward and claimed that he and other judges were tried to be pressurized by the state government (then ruled by Narendra Modi as chief minister) to act against the minority community following the riots.

"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seemed to have got what they wanted. A Mumbai court on Friday turned down the anticipatory bail plea of social activist, Teesta Setalvad, and her husband Javed Anand in a CBI probe into alleged violations of Foreign Contributions Regulatory Act (FCRA) in the running of her non-governmental organisation, the Sabrang Trust. However, within hours, the Bombay high court extended Setalvad’s interim bail. But, the conflict is far from over.

"The hounding of Teesta Setalvad is timed to coincide with the publicly articulated urge of the Prime Minister to get a "clean chit" from the courts in relation to the ongoing cases in Gujarat, which Teesta has been doggedly pursuing. She is the victim of the pursuit for justice. We are being asked to roll back the clock, consign the 2002 Gujarat carnage to the dustbin of history and replace Teesta Setalvad as the villain, who hounded the then chief minister...Can the collective amnesia on the Gujarat riots, and the view that we must move on be legitimized?

To begin with, the aims and objectives of both CJP and Sabrang Trust as contained in their founding documents are wide enough to allow for a wide range of activities. However, since its inception in 2002, CJP’s core concern has been to provide legal aid to the victims of mass crimes. Sabrang Trust’s main focus has been, one, Khoj (education for a plural India) programme run in schools, and two, conflict resolution and peace building.

'Supreme Court Bar Association president Dushyant Dave on Wednesday questioned the top court's decision to grant bail to all accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, and also former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, who was convicted for the murder of 70 people during the 2002 Gujarat riots. A bench comprising Justices JS Khehar, Jasti Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel is hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the National Judicial Commission Act (NJAC), which they claim will erode judicial independence...

'In this season of discontent with Narendra Modi, academic and writer Madhu Purnima Kishwar is yet another admirer who is disappointed with the prime minister's leadership, goals and aspirations. In a free-wheeling interview, Kishwar outlines what has gone wrong and gives a caustic report of Modi’s first year in office. Excerpts:

'The Ford Foundation is among the world’s best-known charitable organizations, dispensing billions of dollars globally for projects aimed at reducing poverty, fighting injustice, improving education and advancing democracy. So it was alarming when India’s Ministry of Home Affairs last month placed the foundation, which has made $500 million in grants to organizations in India since 1952, on a national security watch list. That means it cannot give money to Indian groups without permission from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

'Several riot victims from Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society have pledged their full support to the Mumbai-based human rights activist and founder of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) Teesta Setalvad, alleging that the Gujarat government was harassing her because she fought for justice for them. Interacting with mediapersons at the premises of NGO Prashant (Tranquility) run by Fr Cedric Prakash, the victims said that whatever relief they had got so far was because of the support and backing of Setalvad.

'Victims of crime are known to get so tired of legal processes that they drop out from fatigue. Often, they are bought over by the accused. This is likelier when the accused is a powerful person, with the ability to mobilise finances and wield political clout. Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP who was burnt alive in Gulberg Society during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, was fighting a chief minister (Narendra Modi), and it was not until the Supreme Court appointed an SIT—taking the investigation of the very state she was fighting—that things started to move.